ght.

YUCATAN, a peninsula in Central America dividing the Gulf of Mexico
from the Caribbean Sea, and one of the few peninsulas of the world that
extend northwards; is a flat expanse; has a good climate and a fertile
soil, yielding maize, rice, tobacco, indigo, &c.; abounds in forests of
valuable wood; forms one of the States of the Mexican Republic; it bears
traces of early civilisation in the ruins of temples and other edifices.

YUGA, a name given by the Hindus to the four ages of the world, and,
according to M. Barth, of the gradual triumph of evil, as well as of the
successive creations and destructions of the universe, following each
other in the lapse of immense periods of time.

YUKON, a great river of Alaska, rises in British territory, and
after a course of 2000 m. falls, by a number of mouths forming a delta,
into the Behring Sea; it is navigable nearly throughout, and its waters
swarm with salmon three months in the year, some of them from 80 to 120
lbs. weight, and from 5 to 6 ft. long.

YULE, the old name for the festival of Christmas, originally a
heathen one, observed at the winter solstice in joyous recognition of
the return northward of the sun at that period, being a relic in the N.
of the old sun worship.

YULE, SIR HENRY, Orientalist, born at Inveresk, Mid-Lothian; was an
officer in Bengal Engineers, and engaged in surveys in the East; was
president of the Royal Asiatic Society; wrote numerous articles for
Asiatic societies; his two great works, "The Book of Marco Polo the
Venetian" and the "Anglo-Indian Glossary," known by its other title as
"Hobson Jobson" (1820-1889).

YUMBOES, fairies in African mythology, represented as about two feet
in height, and of a white colour.

YUNG-LING, a mountain range running N. and S., which forms the
eastern buttress of the tableland of Central Asia.

YUNNAN (4,000), the extreme south-western province of the Chinese
Empire; is fertile particularly in the S.; yields large quantities of
maize, rice, tobacco, sugar, and especially opium, and abounds in mineral
wealth, including gold, silver, mercury, as well as iron, copper, and
lead; the country was long a prey to revolt against the Chinese rule, but
it is now, after a war of extermination against the rebels, the Panthays,
the Burmese, reduced to order.

YUSTE, ST., called also St. Just, a village in Estremadura, Spain,
the seat of a monastery where Charles V., Emperor of Germany, spent t